Making our Wedding Rings

The Easter weekend has always been one of my favourite miniature holidays - chocolate, sunshine, lambs and garden lunches - what’s not to love? This year I made a vegan simnel cake for our family Easter tea, using the fruit sponge and marzipan from my luxury Christmas cake recipe - minus the brandy because I just didn’t feel like brandy was a spring flavour? Feel free to disagree.

This Easter Sunday was even more enjoyable than usual, as Dave and I headed off to Eastleigh for a wedding ring workshop with the amazing Helen from Tumble and Rose! I’ve followed Helen on Instagram for a while, and just before Christmas we ended up doing a Christmas fair together in Southampton. She makes beautiful copper jewellery just like my engagement ring, and when I mentioned we were thinking of getting copper wedding bands to match, she offered to show us how to make our own!

So on Sunday we drove to Eastleigh and had a lovely morning drinking coffee and making our wedding rings in Helen’s awesome communal studio, the Sorting Office, which is shared by a handful of other cool artists. If you’re near the area, they’re having an open studio day on Saturday 22 June from 11-5 - the perfect opportunity to meet local creatives and treat yo’self to something handmade.

Our ring-making process involved measuring out copper wire, soldering it into a hoop with a blowtorch, pickling to remove heat marks, hammering into a flat shape and tumbling to give it an extra polish. It was fascinating and so much fun, and as I made Dave’s and he made mine, they’re a pretty special pair of wedding rings!

We both wanted a hammered, rustic effect, and I wanted something very small and dainty while Dave wanted something a bit more solid to withstand a heavy-handed building career. Helen taught us how to make the exact rings we wanted and I cannot recommend her enough as an artist and teacher.

Check out her shop here to find her range of raw crystal jewellery, enamel pins and hand-poured soy candles. She sources all her materials from ethical sources, including having direct contact with miners in Australia and Brazil to make sure her gemstones come from a good place. You can also book onto her workshops for a really special day of creativity. Now I just have to resist wearing my ring for another three months…